


The Ballad of a Love Affair

by mintpearlvoice



Category: Hannibal - Fandom
Genre: Character Study, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-05
Updated: 2014-05-05
Packaged: 2018-01-22 00:32:25
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 441
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1569410
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mintpearlvoice/pseuds/mintpearlvoice
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Character study: what it's like to date a reporter.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Ballad of a Love Affair

**Author's Note:**

> For whatever reason, Roscoe was Freddy's nickname in the book.

It's hard to date a reporter. She uses up all the data on the friends-and-family plan calling her editor from unsavory locales. Instead of talking about things, she leaves clickbait headlines on the refrigerator, scribbled on post-it-notes:  
You Won't Believe What this hot lesbian did when she borrowed her girlfriend's best evening gown! Click through to find out! And then, on the other side: did you rip my dress? If so please respond.  
Don't stick a fork in the yogurt yet because the following could change your entire perspective... (I ate it.)  
Perfect orgasm kills 10, injures 30. (You were so good last night I nearly died. Xoxo. -Lounds)  
Disappears for weeks, doesn't call doesn't write, reappears with a madcap glint in those big blue eyes and gossip as juicy as goblin fruit. Sometimes Wendy thinks that Freddie is actually polyamorous, and her primary partner is the story, also known as The Scoop, also known as The Work, sometimes under the alias The Next Big Thing.  
But the thing is, even if they're separated by continents, she remembers anniversaries. Her love letters crackle with thought-out prose; in bed the focused writer becomes an unashamed succubus. When she remembers that people exist- that is, people other than The Public and The Subject of The Article- she is lavish with both affection and cash. There is something strangely charming in her willful ignorance of her own natural unlikeability. Freddie has never set any stock by being gentle or womanly or afraid of anything. Of the long list of things that women are supposed to be, Freddie ticks off only two boxes: talented and beautiful. Fiercely devoted to the safety and well-being of other women, she's long ago realized, is not on the list. It is an omission that she will never shut up about.  
The thing is, Wendy realizes at twenty-one, she'll be crazy in love with her Roscoe till one of them dies.

 

This is the fire's aftermath: home from the hospital, aimlessly scrolling through the laptop that she often thought of as the mistress to her unofficial wife, Wendy finds out that Freddie wrote her own obituary half a year ago.   
(She didn't trust the sensational truth to anyone else; didn't trust anyone else to get it right.)  
She's also written and recorded the address to be read at the funeral and an entire front-page article on her death. All of them have clearly been kept updated with her current accomplishments. Even from beyond the grave, she's gotten the exclusive scoop, the last and final word.  
Wendy closes the computer, puts her head in her hands, and laughs until she cries. 


End file.
